As part of the development of the Ferrari SF-24 for the current campaign, the Scuderia will have for the 2024 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which will be held next week at Imola, the first of its three packages of planned developments.
In order to best prepare for the arrival of these new products on its single-seaters, the team has decided to use its second and final promotional driving session on the Fiorano circuit on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 May. The aim of this run will be to understand and calibrate as best as possible the settings around this package in order to rough up the work to be done at Imola and to be more quickly competitive during the GP.
The promotional driving days are planned and governed by the Formula 1 regulations. They are limited in distance (200 km maximum) but also in terms of the tires used which are special tires supplied by Pirelli. However, this will provide Ferrari with interesting data on the package’s performance while also allowing the correlation between the real world and data from the wind tunnel and computer model to be verified.
In addition, this run will also allow the Italian firm to record promotional images with its drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, notably giving pride of place to HP. The American firm has in recent weeks become title sponsor of the Scuderia and is conspicuously displayed on the SF-24s as well as on the suits of the drivers and members of the team.
Oliver Bearman should be given some running time to prepare for the first of his planned six Free Practice 1 appearances with Haas this year, which will take place at Imola. The Briton has already taken part in a Grand Prix this year when he replaced Sainz at short notice in Saudi Arabia, the Spaniard having required emergency surgery after suffering an attack of appendicitis.
“You shouldn’t expect it to be a game-changer, but it’s so tight that it could bring performance”declared in Miami Frédéric Vasseur, the director of Ferrari, about the arrival of these developments.
With Franco Nugnes
